Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen Tried to Write a Song Together Before ‘I Can’t Love You Anymore’ But “It Didn't Work Out”

Ella Langley is opening up about how her hugely popular collaboration with Morgan Wallen, ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’, came about, with the Alabama native revealing that she and Wallen had tried to write a song together before, but it hadn't worked out.

During her exclusive SiriusXM show last week, Langley began by joking about how ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ stemmed from the fact that she'd been touring with Wallen for three years, and they were performing a song she wasn't super familiar with. Before they had ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’, they'd join forces on-stage for ‘What I Want’, and Langley has poked fun previously at how she'd often forget the words.

While introducing ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’, Langley muses, “I've gotten to do a lot of really cool stuff this year, and something that I didn't know was going to happen but I was really hoping on, was the song with Morgan. You know, we've been on tour together...This is our third year on tour together, and I was like, ‘Can we do something that we...both know?’ And we tried to write one and it didn't work out”.

The ‘Choosin’ Texas’ hitmaker goes on to explain that the core idea for ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ originated from her friend and team-member's relationship struggles, “My manager was having this...day, and I wrote down this title from it, and I talked to Morgan later that day and he was like, ‘S***, why don't you just try to go write it?’”

Langley admits she wasn't sure why she hadn't tried this before Wallen suggested it, “I was like, ‘I don't know why I don't go do that, I don't know’. So I called two of my favourite people and we went and sat down in the studio and recorded this song less than a month than when it came out. This is ’I Can't Love You Anymore’”.

Langley co-wrote ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ with two of her closest collaborators, Austin Goodloe and Joybeth Taylor. This trio also worked together on stand-outs from Langley's 2026 album, Dandelion, such as the title-track and ‘Broken’.

Although we'd love Langley and Wallen to write together again in the near future, perhaps for the latter's forthcoming record, we're glad the ‘Last Night’ chart-topper recommended that Langley try penning the song without him, because it produced one of the most infectious earworms of the year in ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’.

If it wasn't for Langley's monster hit ‘Choosin’ Texas’, which has become the longest-running No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 of all time, you can't help but feel ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ with Wallen would have taken the top spot. Even though it didn't reach the pinnacle, it's still one of the most successful singles of 2026.

Next month, Langley and Wallen will be vying for Musical Event of the Year at the CMA Awards, with ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ sure to be one of the favourites to triumph.

The arrival of this blockbuster duet undoubtedly did feel like a major musical event, with ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ connecting arguably the two biggest artists in modern country music. It's rare that we're treated to a collaboration of this kind while both artists are at the peak of their powers, with the yearning, will-they-won't-they ode feeling like a snapshot of the upper echelon of today's country scene.

Although Wallen and Langley don't have anymore tour-stops on the books for 2026 or 2027, and Langley is now far too big to open for him, we're hoping we get to see these country trailblazers teaming up to perform ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’ again soon.